The Biochar Debate: Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertility [Paperback]

I was attracted to this little book for two reasons: 1) "biochar" is apparently the same thing as the "terra preta" (dark fertile soil) found near the Amazon River and attributed to a now-disappeared civilization which created it, and I wanted to know more about how they did it, and 2) because the book postulates that use of biochar is supposed to help reduce global warming, and I'd like to know how it does that. These are complicated issues; the book deals with the creation and effects of biochar, but the author's main agenda seems to be around rethinking the current initiatives (such as those in the Kyoto agreement) that various nations are undertaking to contain global warming. Biochar, he says, has a role to play, but it is only a part of a larger solution to a fairly desperate crisis facing humanity.

Biochar, for those who don't know, is created from organic material that is burned into charcoal (using a process called pyrolysis). The "terra preta" discovered in the Amazon jungle is black because it contains a large amount of charcoal. The theory is that the ancient people who once lived in the region discovered a way to add charcoal to the soil, and this gave them a very fertile, productive soil that supported a large population and, amazingly, that soil is still there and still fertile. What happened to the people who created it? The best theory is that they were all but wiped out by a pandemic brought by Europeans.

The same fate (the being wiped out part) may face many more populations across the globe if nations don't begin to act more forcefuly on global warming. But what should they be doing? How does biochar fit into this scenario? Biochar, as we know from the example of the terra preta, can enrich the soil and keep it fertile for long periods. That would benefit the world through production of more food without soil-degrading and energy-consuming chemical fertilizers. But the real payoff (if I understand the author's point) is that biochar mixed into soil basically sequesters carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere. This is a good thing to do and has the effect of reducing carbon emissions that cause global warming. So far so good.

But the author also discusses current ways of counting carbon that use market mechanisms for buying and selling "carbon credits" and are supposed to provide incentives for nations and their citizens to use less carbon. But, that often doesn't happen. The author clearly does not think market forces can ever solve the problem of global warming. He says that small farmers the world over are the main producers of food, and most of them do not even operate in the global market. He thinks their main motivation for using biochar is not going to have anything to do with buying and selling carbon credits, but will simply come from the better production of food they will get by incorporating biochar into their soil.

The book makes many interesting points, but the author seems to wander all over and I got to the end still scratching my head trying to figure out what I had really learned here. Yes, I do know more about biochar than I did before reading this, so I guess from that standpoint the book succeeded. I didn't learn anything new about the people who created the terra preta, but I can't help but think about how their civilization disappeared back into the jungle. Could that also be the fate of our current global economy? When it comes to the big picture of what my country (USA) and other countries should be doing to avert a coming disaster from global warming, I admit that I am still confused.

However, I'd love to get my hands on some biochar or find a way to make some out of my yard wastes so I can improve the yield of my little backyard garden. I live in a place where the soil is basically sand, and I fight a constant battle to improve the soil enough to grow some tomato and cucumber plants. Clearly, the author had a larger purpose in this "briefing" book, but he DID convince me that biochar could help me and everyone else grow more of our own food, without resorting to chemical fertilizers, which he points out, actually deplete the soil. Perhaps millions of people with backyard gardens could make a difference. Or maybe not. Maybe we're all facing Armageddon over global warming, and there's not much any one of us can do about it. I just don't know.

Before I had read this book I had not even heard of biochar. But then I am a city boy. And therein lies a tale of today's world. Too many of us are city boys and not enough of us have any real understanding of where our food comes from and how.

Biochar is the result of the pyrolysis of biomass, including trees, leaves, grass, and everything that grows. Biochar is also made from the waste products of animals. The method is to heat the "feedstock" (the biomass) to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. The result is charcoal which ideally is used, as the subtitle of the book has it, to build soil fertility. Biochar--"finely crushed charcoal used for soil enhancement" (p. 107)--does this by returning minerals and especially carbon to the soil. Because of its porous nature biochar is excellent for dry soils because it can hold water in the soil. Mixed with manure and compost, biochar is an ideal fertilizer and has been used as such by indigenous people the world over for thousands of years.

Mixing biochar into soils is also a way of sequestering carbon. When biomass is burned without the presence of oxygen the carbon in the biomass does not combine with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Consequently there are two main advantages of using biochar: one, it helps the soil to be more fertile, and two, it keeps carbon from getting into the air as carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas. To the extent that the biochar stays in the soil, the production and use of biochar reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: the plants that are made into biochar drew the carbon dioxide out of the air for their growth. According to author James Bruges biochar can stay in the soil for literally hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

Bruges has observed the use of biochar in many places in the world and especially in India. This book reports on his experiences. Central to his experience is that the production and use of biochar works wonderfully well in an environment of smallholders in agrarian communities. If biochar becomes part of a cap and trade process, Bruges warns, land will be given over to industrial farms growing a monoculture in order to get carbon credits. This would be a disaster for small farmers and would result in higher food costs.

There are a number of other problems with implementing and maintaining a biochar culture. Bruges explores these difficulties and offers solutions. Clearly biochar is just one method in our effort to return the world to sustainability. Heaven knows we need all the help we can get.

(Note: The following books by Dennis Littrell are now available at Amazon.com:

Yoga: Sacred and Profane (Beyond Hatha Yoga)
Dennis Littrell's True Crime Companion
Novels and other Fictions
Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!
The Holon
Teddy and Teri
High School from Hell
Let's Play Overkill!
Like a Tsunami Headed for Hilo
Understanding Evolution and Ourselves

Coming soon:

The World Is Not as We Think It Is)

Now available at Amazon:

The World Is Not as We Think It Is

"The Biochar Debate' by James Bruges is a primer about one of the few known solutions to not just alleviating, but reversing the effects of global warming. In this informative book, Mr. Bruges positions biochar as an earth-friendly response to an urgent environmental challenge imposed upon nature by industrial capitalism. Written with clarity, passion and purpose, Mr. Bruges encourages us to support biochar as an integral part of a strategy that puts people before corporate profits.

Mr. Bruges provides an overall view of global warming, making clear that the planet is well on its way towards becoming inhospitable to human civilization. Mr. Bruges briefly recounts how biochar was used successfully by generations of farmers in the Amazon to improve soil fertility, musing how biochar might help resuscitate soils that have been depleted by industrial agriculture. Indeed, he provides compelling case studies that demonstrate how biochar is used today by growers around the world to achieve better yields at lower cost. The author goes on to discuss the science of how biochar absorbs greenhouse gases and provides estimates on how much biochar might need to be produced to achieve meaningful results, offering hope that a solution may be within our reach.

Importantly, Mr. Bruges stresses that biochar must be a tool that is used to empower small farmers and not push farmers further into the tentacles of big agribusiness. The author discusses the many reasons why top-down schemes that privilege financial speculation in the form of carbon trading generally do not benefit those who work the land. On the other hand, the author believes that the knowledge and the means to produce biochar could provide badly-needed revenues to small farmers, allowing them to nurture the environment and strengthen their local communities. Indeed, the recognition that the kind of sustainable living and production practices of which biochar might be a part are essential towards envisioning a more hopeful future.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.